DOI: 10.18848/2327-7882/cgp/a241 ISSN: 2327-8617

Mapping and Meeting the Linguistic Needs of Visitors to Madinah

Waleed Bleyhesh al-Amri
Show PDF Cite
<p class="ql-align-justify">Madinah receives visitors from across the world who speak many languages and arrive with diverse literacy levels, travel modes, and service expectations. While visiting al-Masjid al-Nabawī (the Prophet’s Mosque) remains the primary purpose for many visitors, destination activation has expanded movement toward heritage attractions, markets, transport hubs, museums, hotels, and other services. This article does not report completed field data. Instead, it proposes a practical mixed-methods framework for future empirical mapping of language friction points across the Madinah visitor journey and for converting observed evidence into implementable multilingual and multimodal interventions. The framework defines linguistic needs as situational service requirements and language friction points as communication-specific interruptions at journey nodes that delay, prevent, or complicate visitor progress. It integrates structured field observation, short intercept interviews, multilingual micro-surveys, and an optional linguistic landscape audit. It also proposes an expanded prioritization matrix: frequency × risk × satisfaction impact × solvability × accessibility-modality fit. The framework is grounded in wayfinding theory, linguistic landscape studies, customer/visitor journey mapping, service failure literature, and Universal Design. By treating multilingual provision as a multimodal service-design portfolio rather than as a static list of supported languages, the article offers Madinah stakeholders a testable pathway for pilot implementation, stakeholder validation, and before/after evaluation.</p>

More from our Archive